BAD NEIGHBORS

YOU CAN COUNT ON ME

Wang He Di had never felt more embarrassed than that.
He had gone out to dinner with a beautiful girl he met in a perfumery and then they had gone to his apartment to end the night. But something was wrong.
His body didn't want to cooperate...
It seemed it didn't have the slightest desire to spend the night with that girl.
"Wait, maybe it'll be better in this position" she offered, clinging to the headboard of the bed.
"OUCH!" she screamed immediately after.
"What happens?!" Dylan asked, alarmed.
"I got a splinter!"
The girl showed him a hand with watery eyes.
Wang He Di covered his face with his hands and he sighed loudly.
That night was a nightmare.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! HELP ME!"  she whimpered.
"Wait a second, okay? A vet lives in the apartment in front of mine, she can...".
The girl's shocked and furious gaze interrupted him.
"Oh! I'm not saying you're an anim..."
"JUST GO!"
Dylan sighed again and wrapped a towel around his waist, then he went out and knocked on Shen Yue's door.
"Why are you always half naked?!"
"Don't ask questions! Can you come to me for a second? There's... A little problem."
"What happens?"
"Well..."
"Yueyue! I think I screwed up the stew!" a man's voice from the kitchen made Dylan's eyes widen.
"Turn off the fire! I'll be back in a moment!" Yue yelled back.
She pushed Dylan out and closed the door behind them, then she entered his apartment.
"So, what is the problem?" she asked him.
Wang He Di's mind was still at that voice at Yue's house.
"Didi? You're making me worry!"
"Um... Could you... Could you help me to take a splinter out of a girl's hand?"
"A girl? A splinter? Are you kidding me?!"
"You're a doctor! You can do these things!"
"Anyone can do these things, Didi!"
Just then, the girl came out of Dylan's room and joined them covered only by a sheet.
"Are you the doctor?" she asked, her eyes still misty.
"This is really embarrassing" Yue muttered.

===

Shen Yue asked the girl to sit down at the kitchen table and she took tweezers to get the splinter out of her hand.
She still couldn't believe she had come into such a situation.
"Ouch! Can you be more gentle?!"
"Miss, there isn't a tree trunk in your hand. Stay still and let me work" Yue replied, tired of indulging the whims of a stranger.
Wang He Di, meanwhile, sat watching her.
"So... Who is there waiting for you?"  he finally asked, dying of curiosity.
"A friend" Shen Yue replied, without looking at him.
"A friend?"
"My ex".
"WHAT?!"
"Why are you screaming?!"
"What... What's going on?! Why is your ex in your house making stew?!"
"Because he was passing by for work and he thought to come to see me."
"Tsk".
"Tsk?"
"Tsk".
"What's your problem, Wang He Di?"
"Problem? No problem. I just find it absurd for an ex-boyfriend to come back into your life like this. Don't you find it absurd?" Dylan turned to the girl from the perfumery, who was trying to figure out what kind of relationship there was between those two fools.
"Well, the past should stay in the past" she replied.
"Exactly! That's what I think too!"  Dylan exclaimed.
Shen Yue finally managed to extract the splinter from the girl's hand.
"Good. I'm glad you get along so well. If you don't mind, I'm a little tired of hearing life lessons from half-naked people. Goodnight."
She hurried out of the apartment.
"So? Where were we?" smiled the girl.
"I think you better leave" Wang He Di sighed.
"What?!"
"I'm sorry".

===

Wang He Di spent the rest of the night with his ears alert.
It was late, but Shen Yue's ex hadn't left yet.
Would he sleep there?
But just as that thought began to torture his head, Dylan finally heard the door of Yue's apartment open.
He ran to the peephole and saw the two of them in a long embrace that he wasn't quite ready to witness.
He waited for the boy to leave and then went out into the hall.
Yue crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.
"Sorry" Dylan said immediately.
She smiled at him and gave him a small slap in the arm.
"Come on, come on" she said.
She let him in and they sat on the sofa.
Dylan didn't like the scent that Yue's ex left in every room.
"So? What's going on?" Shen Yue asked him, looking at him carefully.
"What do you mean?"
"Something is wrong, I saw it in your eyes as soon as you knocked on my door."
"Woah! Cutie! I'm fine!" he laughed.
He certainly didn't want to talk to her about his "physical" problems.
"Ok, ok. Anyway remember that if there is any problem, you can always count on me."
"I know! Didn't I call you to take a splinter off a girl?"
Shen Yue glared at him.
"Don't ever do that again! It was embarrassing!"
"Where's the You can count on me gone?"
"You could at least have dressed before you called me" Yue muttered.
She was used to Wang He Di's lifestyle by now, but thinking she was catapulted into that situation just as those two were doing something so intimate bothered her.
On the other hand, Dylan considered the fact that Yue and her ex were cooking together even more intimate and he just couldn't get that bad feeling out of his stomach.
"Everything's ok with that one?"  he asked her all of a sudden.
"With Jasper? Sure! I'm glad I saw him again!" Yue smiled.
"What type is he? Is he handsome?"
Through the peephole he could only see him from behind.
"Very handsome".
"Tsk. I don't believe you."
"Trust me, he is."
"More than me?".
Yue nodded without looking at him, knowing full well what his reaction would be.
She didn't really think what she said, but she enjoyed making him angry.
"IT'S NOT TRUE!"  bellowed Dylan indignantly.
"How do you know? You didn't see him..." Yue giggled.
"Because no one is more handsome than me" he muttered.
She burst out laughing heartily.
What a baby!
"Tiger... Do you still have feelings for him?" this time Dylan was serious.
"No. Only affection" Yue's firm tone calmed Wang He Di, who didn't even know what was upset him so much.
He thought it was simple concern.  After all, he cared a lot about Shen Yue. He hoped he would never have to see her suffer.
Suddenly Yue received a phone call and after answering, the girl jumped to her feet and ran to find her car keys and put on her shoes.
"Didi, there's an emergency at the clinic. I have to go" she explained hastily.
"At this hour?! I'll take you!"
"No need! See you tomorrow."
But Dylan insisted and Yue was forced to agree.

===

It had already been three hours since Shen Yue entered the clinic.
Wang He Di had decided to wait for her in the car.
He was sleeping with his forehead resting on the steering wheel when a call made him wake up with a start.
"Hello? Am I speaking with Mr. Wang?"
"Yes..."
"I'm an assistant to Dr. Shen. She asked me to call you to tell you to go home. The surgery will still take about two hours. She said she will call a taxi as soon as it is finished."
"Two hours?"
"Yes".
"Is she ok?"
The nurse on the other end of the line smiled and thought how lucky Dr. Shen was to have such a caring boyfriend.
"She's fine. But... Mr. Wang... The surgery that Dr. Shen is performing is extremely delicate. The chances of the patient surviving are one in ten. So... Please take care of her when she will come home. The Doctor is very sensitive."
"Sure, I'll definitely do it. Thanks. Good work."
Dylan hung up and sighed.
On the way to the Shen Yue clinic she hadn't said a word.
She looked like she was trying to focus.
She only told him that the little dog she was about to operate had been hit by a motorcycle.
Five hours of surgery... At that time of night... She must have been very tired, Wang He Di thought.

===

Shen Yue walked out of the clinic slowly, still wearing the pink uniform under her coat.  It was six in the morning.  She was amazed when she saw Dylan's car... She was sure her assistant told her she had called him.
She knocked softly on the window and the boy snapped his eyes open.
"Hey!" he exclaimed, quickly getting out of the car to run to open the door for her.
Yue was surprised at that gesture, but she was too tired to be able to speak.
She thanked him in a whisper and got into the car.
Wang He Di was really worried... Judging from Shen Yue's face, the puppy's operation had failed.
"Are you ok?" he asked her, stroking her hand.
She nodded.
Dylan just held her hand and started the car.
When they arrived at the door of their apartments, Yue thanked him again.
"Shen Yue... Are you really fine? Do you want me to stay with you for a while?"
Yue's eyes turned watery.
"Thanks for everything, Didi. Really. Sorry for this bad night... I hope you can rest a bit before going to work. Don't worry, everything is ok."
Dylan stared at her for a moment, visibly worried, and she smiled at him.
"Call me if you need anything, ok?"
"Ok, thanks".
The two entered their respective apartments.
Wang He Di stood at the entrance...
He was sure that Yue was not well at all, but he didn't know how to help her.
He decided not to open the workshop that day and to stay at home to be closer to her and be at her disposal.  As soon as he took off his shoes, he heard someone knock on the door.
He was amazed to find Shen Yue in front of him, her eyes full of tears.
"Can you hug me for a moment?" she asked him in a trembling voice.
Wang He Di didn't hesitate even for a second and he hugged her tightly.
With one hand he held her to him, while with the other he gently stroked her hair.
Shen Yue was shaking with sobs.
"Yue... The little dog..."
"It survived" she managed to say in a tiny little voice.
Dylan's eyes widened.
"Then why are you crying like that?!"
"I was so scared... I risked losing the dog several times during the operation... It was a miracle".
"It wasn't a miracle, little idiot. It was you. I'm proud of you, you were great."
Yue's tears began to fall even stronger.
Wang He Di gave her little kisses on her head. Seeing her like that was breaking his heart.
He found out that he was willing to do anything to make her stop crying... If at that moment she had told him to jump out of the window, he would have done it.
He held her close to him for a long time and when he sensed that Yue was running out of energy, he picked her up and carried her to her apartment.
He laid her gently on the bed and sat down next to her.
Shen Yue had her eyes closed, but her small hands kept gripping Wang He Di's shirt.
"I'm staying here with you, okay? Take a rest, cutie. It's all over. You did a good job" he whispered.
She tugged at him lightly, forcing him to lie down, then she curled up against his chest.
Dylan stopped breathing for a second, caught off guard.
She must have been really shocked, otherwise she would never have let him lie in her bed like that, with her.
He hugged her and rested his chin on Yue's head, listening to her breathing become calmer and calmer.
That was the only room where Jasper's perfume wasn't present... Maybe he was going crazy, but that thought made Wang He Di fall asleep with a big smile on his face.

Author's Corner
Ciao!
Hope you are well, guys❤️
By now Didi is completely hooked, don't you think?  😄
Thanks for everything... as always 😘 I read your comments with great gratitude 🥺
A big hug,
Lucrezia